Greece Nixes Erdogan’s Mosque Offer

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Feb 9, 2013

“Greece has rejected Turkey’s offer to finance the construction of a mosque in Athens, the only European capital with no mosque”, the Turkish newspaper Zaman reported.

“The Greek government will fund the construction of a mosque in Athens,” Deputy Foreign Minister Costas Tsiaras noted in Parliament, rebuffing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip’s offer to pay for the cost. Muslims in Greece have been demanding the government pay for an official place of worship.

Zaman noted the offer came when Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras met in Doha, Qatar recently but Tsiaras said it won’t be accepted.

The Turkish press, in an attempt to pressure the Greek government to accelerate the process of the construction of the mosque, noted that Greece is the only country among 15 founding members of European Union not to have a mosque in its capital. There is substantial opposition to the idea in Greece from religious and nationalist groups.

24 COMMENTS

I offer Erdogan that Kurds freely build their own mosques in SE Turkey, Armenians build their own Churches in NE Turkey and Greeks built their Own Churches in Smyrna, Pontus, Constantinople and Assyrians build their own Churches in central Turkey.

I think that if our authorities don’t want to build a mosque fo our fellow muslim citizens, then Turkey should kick the patriarch out of Istanbul and close all Greek Orthodox places of worship while keeping open all other non-Greek churches.
Its about time our leaders woke up to themselves and understood the significance of mutual places of worship!
While my own orthodox belief has been tested in these times of calamity, I see no reason why other faiths who are undergoing similar hardships in our land because of our incompetent governments should not have a place to pray.

isnt greece in the rubbish dumphole economically? I think our muslim brothers from Greece should move to Turkey or Rich gulf. Soon Greece will engulf in civil war or go bankrupt. Maybe few more months of Sadistic nazi Austerity and it will hit the fan.

Turkey should mind its own freaking business. Athens may be the only capital in Europe without a Mosque, but plenty of Muslims are very happy to call Athens home. Also, Greece is not designated a “country of particular concern”, the Commission on International Religious Freedom’s worst rating, which has been given to Turkey. Turkey should immediately return all the properties it forcibly took from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople, and immediately reopen the Orthodox school in Chalki! Mr. Erdogan, stop being a smart as*, and look at your own country instead of getting involved in ours. You and your little Turkish cohorts advising you should keep your mouths shut. Malakes.

Perhaps you should learn how to read instead of talking smack like a good-for-nothing anarchist. ” “The Greek government will fund the construction of a mosque in Athens,” Deputy Foreign Minister Costas Tsiaras noted in Parliament, rebuffing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip’s offer to pay for the cost.” Erdogan commented on something that was none of his business, simply to provoke. The Greek government was already planning on building the Mosque. And in any case, don’t talk of Athens like that and call it “our” city. You clearly have no respect for Greece, its religion and its traditions, and thus, my Athens is not yours. If you don’t like it, you can go to Turkey and live there. Perhaps your little friend Zaman can keep you at his house. Idiots!

Multiculturalism with Muslims doesn’t work anywhere in the world. In UK and Norway Muslims account for almost all the rape. Islamic values towards women is not compatible so they should go home anyways.

1- Many many kurds vote for any İslamic party akp and religious affairs, conducting formal religious institution.You’re talking about some of the pkk followers.

-2 There are more than 70 Armenian Association. i dont now how many churches. 70.000 ottoman armenian living istanbul now and maybe 100000 illegal armenian people working turkey.
Historical Van akdamar armenian church and diyarbakır church was opened 2-3 years ago. show it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99sNAst-duc

3- in 5-6 years, 51 churches opened in turkey. (ortodox,armenian or syranic)

Yes you idiot, the Patriarch’s official title is His Most Divine All-Holiness the Archbishop of Constantinople New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch. And guess what? The only part of this title the Turkish government does not recognize is “ecumenical”. Istanbul was nothing had it not been for Constantinople, go read some history and learn about it. And in any case, Istanbul is also a Greek name, deriving from the Greek eis-thn-polh, which means “to the city”. So perhaps you should be thanking Greeks for creating something useful out of your country, instead of being a smart ass like your prime minister.

Narrow-mindedness becomes you my American fascist but in the end ultra-nationalists like yourself and your Golden Dawn cohorts keep our Greece in constant tension. Your imbecilic nature is what I expect from a naive Greek-American whose diasporic infatuations are only inward looking and nationalistic. You blame everyone but your self-serving interests.
Fools like you keep hatred alive by using history, religion, and verbal abuse to denigrade people from other cultures. You should take off your black shirt my American fascist and start looking at the world without your Golden Dawn goggles!
Yes, I live in Greece and guess what the thought of not giving our Greek citizens of muslim background whether they are Turkish, Bulgarian Pomaks, or Egyptian a place to woship is inhumane.
For this reason I believe that our Turkish friends have a right to shut down the Patiarch and all places of worship that are Greek orthodox in Turkey if our conservatives don’t get their act together and finally build a mosque rather than discuss building a mosque as they have been for the last 10 years!

So according to you, I am a fascist because I tell you that you have no clue how to read an article? I am a fascist because I say that Turkey should mind its own business, instead of meddling in ours, as they have done provocatively for centuries? I am a fascist because I say that you are making foolish remarks since the parliament has already approved the construction of a place of worship in Athens? It seems pretty clear you are the imbecile here. I do not give anyone, especially not an idiot like you, the right to tell me what I am, or how I feel, or who I affiliate with. Anyone who is proud to be Greek these days is smeared by extreme left-wingers and anarchists like yourself. I am not a member of Golden Dawn, I am not a fascist, I am a proud Greek! You, on the other hand, instead of being supportive of the Greek government in a time of crisis, know only how to make demands. You demand a mosque, you demand handouts, and you open your idiotic mouth to put negativity and hatred out. When do you start producing things, and being supportive? What you do is destroy: you destroy Greece’s reputation abroad, you destroy Greece’s economy, you destroy Greece’s culture. You are no civil rights activist. Greece has not taken away any right from the Muslim minority in Greece. Turkey, on the other hand, has oppressed, abused, and crucified the Orthodox Christian minority in Turkey for centuries. So, get your facts straight, go open a book to educate yourself on some history, and wash out your mouth with soap. It’s dirty and it stinks!

You silly fascist American, the government approved the construction of the mosque 13 yeas ago, but hence our fellow muslim citizens are still waiting. I guess we can excuse your absent mindedness from our politics but you should update yourself on Greek politics from time to time.

And Please don’t make us vomit again, one can see though your political colours, for example, as to not being a fascist but a proud Greek. There is a significant difference between being proud of one’s Greek culture or being proud of one’s Greek supremacy and Greek purity as your use of language indicates.
As I said my American fascist, you blame everyone else but your self-serving interests. I believe you should start reading and see how Tukey cannot be blamed for all of Greece’s misery.
But to go into that my fascist friend you would not understand. Your Greek purity attitudes are abhorrent. While you live in the ivory towers of America you have the gall to comment on the pain and suffering of the common people who trusted our governments who, like youself, only foregrounded self-serving interests at the expense of the people.
While most diasporic Greeks seem to understand the motherlands predicament fascist Greeks like yourself among the diaspora are continually spreading Greek supremacy views, with anti-Turkish rhetoric. The Turk my fascist friend is not responsible for all our problems. Yet fascists like yourself and your Golden Dawn imbeciles play on the politics of fear of our people.
You can live in your sterotypical world my fascist American as long as you keep your fascist views moderate.

How can you talk about being moderate and reasonable, when you are the one proposing that Turkey should have the right to kick out the Ecumenical Patriarch from Constantinople, leader of over 300 million Orthodox Christians not only in Greece but from across the world? And why? Because there has been a delay in the construction of a huge mosque, in the center of Athens, in the midst of an economic crisis! And then you have the guts to call me fascist and unreasonable, and you associate me with Golden Dawn neo-nazis, which I am most certainly not, so watch your mouth! While I can understand that a thirteen year delay is a bit much, you are the most misguided, uneducated, radical anarchist to think you have the right to say those things about the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Perhaps that is because you place no value on faith, tradition and culture. And in any case, the Patriarchate was there before Turkey even became a country. So you should perhaps take your own advice and pick up a book to educate yourself. And since when did Turkey become the representative of the Muslim world in Greece? What gives them the right to meddle provocatively in Greek internal affairs? Naim El-ghandour is doing the job just fine. Indeed, the Turk is not responsible for all our problems, anarchists like you are responsible as well, and so are your fascist political counterparts, as well as corrupt politicians…who YOU voted for. So before you blame me, and label me, try looking at yourself in the mirror, wake up, and smell the roses. In my “ivory towers of America”, I learned very early to work hard, and show initiative and determination to reach the goals I set for myself, not expect everything handed to me on a silver platter…which is what people like you do. You should really humble yourself, and take some lessons.

Again, I repeat my fascist American friend! You and your Golden Dawn criminals are as much to blame as every other political colour. Don’t forget Greece has had center right and left wing governments and they both turned out incompetent as it took them less than 40 years (after your fascist junta was overthrown) to bring us to this mess.

As for religion in Greece and in particular the patriarch they should be disjointed from the political infrastructure of our country like in other western countries, e.g. in your America. We have nothing short of a theocracy here similar to Iran, where the church is paid by the state and even worse formally officiates the incoming governments.

Look at how good the Americans brought in Obama without any religious ceremony. That is real democracy, as is practiced in Britain, Germany France, damn it, in the rest of Europe!

No, my fascist friend, as the vast majority of muslims in Thrace are of Turkish extraction Tukey has a right to weigh in as our idiot politicians always interfere in Turkeys handling of minority religions. We have realised that the average Turk who visits us and openly voices concerns of both our country’s issues is equally troubled. They are not to blame as many Greeks shouldn’t be either. The mosque isn’t being built because of right wing fascists like yourself and religious fanatics of all political persuasions.

And this is why imbeciles like yourself and other fascists who follow blindly religious patriotism are quite the catalysts of these issues and hence tolerate nothing but jingoistic nationalism. So yes your ivory towers in America that you built are good for you but in reality they are but a veneer of your true self, the inescapeable reflection you have forever watched in your mirror.

Savas, I see you are a Philosopher: “a veneer of your true self”. Wow! I have yet to hear such a vast amount of bullshit in my life. You have a problem with the Church giving its blessing and officiating the incoming government out of tradition? In America, the President takes an oath placing his hand on the Bible! How can you compare this to an Iranian theocracy, where religious leaders of Khamenei’s sort actually have a direct correlation with the result of voting? Religious leaders do not choose political leaders in Greece! And even if the state paid the church, why is it so problematic to have a national religion when over 95% of your population is Greek Orthodox? How about countries like Italy who have Catholicism as their national religion? I don’t hear you complaining about that! I’m not even going to waste my time with you, because you have shown how uneducated, clueless, brainwashed and radical you are by the comments you make. I am very very very happy with my “reflection in the mirror”. My advice to you is to go pick up a book so you can learn some history, go to school to get yourself educated, get a job, and stop getting brainwashed by your political party. I truly feel dumber for having a conversation with you. And also, if you really want to speed up the construction of the mosque, more power to you! Seriously! But instead of expecting things and opening your mouth to bark like a dog and spread negativity, open your wallet to make a donation to the mosque fund, and maybe even pick up a shovel so you can start off the construction!

You silly fascist, Italy has a secular government, as has America, Gemany etc. The idea of separating church from state is one of the pillars of modern democracy. The chuch in Greece, similar to the theocracy in Iran, have a huge sway over Greek politics. But of course you don’t live here do you! Its the ignorant right wing christian red-necks like yourself who together with your party the Golden Dawn create negativity in our land.

As for the mosque, your visible hatred of Muslim religion and of Turks is sad, especially to see someone who lives in a multicultural society like America not to have any tolerance for other religions and cultures.

As you have no problem at the reflection in the mirror of your fascist image, take note and contemplate about the world you live in, where you are a member of a nationalist ideology where your red-neck religious fanatics seem to have taken root.

It is only natural then that the only way to stop your Golden Dawn fascist party from spreading more hate as you do now, is for the moderates among our people to champion tolerance for Greek citizens of all backgrounds and religions, from a Theocratic Greece violently guarded by neo-nazi thugs who beat and kill anyone who opposes their fascist ideology,. In the end the Greek orthodox church is not superior to the state and certainly not superior to other religions.
So my fascist American don’t waste our time and educated yourself and read before you open your mouth spill more filth.